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The week in Indian sports

TENNIS
Megha wins back to back titles

Pune, May 27: Third seed Megha Vakharia stunned second ranked Archana Venkataraman in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to bag back-to-back women's singles titles in the ITF women's satellite, third leg, tennis championship in Pune last week. Megha took an hour and 36 minutes to wind-up the match, making it her second consecutive after winning the Mumbai-leg in the previous leg.

The 15-year-old Megha, who had beaten Sonal Phadke in the straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the Bombay leg final, has clearly announced her arrival on the Indian tennis firmament. Not only has the left-hander beaten players of immense talent, such as Phadke, who is the leading junior in the country, but her wins over the experienced Archana Venkataraman, both in Pune and Bombay, are a tribute to her ability as well as resolve. At the end of the encounter against Venkataraman, Megha said that she was confident of winning the title as she had beaten Archana in quarter-finals in Bombay. "My service was not up to the mark as I was nursing an injury to my left elbow. Even yesterday, my elbow had swollen but I played an attacking game and that proved to be decisive," she said.

Megha will now go into the Masters event in Delhi this week as one of the firm favourites to pick the title. The ITF women's Masters tournament will provide Indian players an opportunity to grab all-important WTA ranking points. The Delhi event will be the culmination of the three-leg tournament held in Indore, Bombay and Pune, among top 16 players - who accumulated points during last three weeks. Megha is seeded second for the event after having accumulated 30 circuit points with her wins in Bombay and Pune. Sonal Phadke will be the top seed after having got 32 points the three tournaments.

If the mercurial Megha continues to show the form that won her the last two legs, she is bound to be tough to beat. All tennis fans will be hoping that Megha converts her run of success in India with similar exploits on the international scene.

SHOOTING
Jaspal takes second spot

Poland, May 23: Jaspal Rana finished second in the air pistol event of the Wroslaw Days cup competition in Poland last week. Jaspal shot 577 in leading the finalists, but had a score 99.5 in the final to take the second spot. The finals were treated as separate events for deciding the position of the competitors in the meet. Samaresh Jung, with 575 points, and Ved Prakash, with 573 points, going into the finals , shot 98.7 and 98.4 respectively to finish fourth and fifth in the air pistol event.

In the free rifle prone event, T.C. Palangappa had a score of 589 out of 600 in making the final as the second best behind a score of 590. However, he only managed 100.9 in the final to come third while A.P. Subbiah, who had a score of 587 going into the finals, shot 110.2 to take the sixth position. Dilip Sawant shot 583 but could not make it to the final.

In the women's free rifle prone event, Kuheli Gangulee shot 586 to take the second slot. Deepali Deshpande and Anjali Vedapathak had scores of 579 and 573 respectively.

The competition was the last in the Polish leg of the Indian team. They will now move on to Italy for the next stage of their training cum competition period. The Polish leg has been extremely fruitful for the squad with a clutch of medals coming their way and several team members scoring world-class scores. Some are hoping to grab places for the Sydney Olympics through the hardship quota and their efforts here may increase their chances of making the grade. The contests in Italy will be an important stepping stone towards achieving that objective.

BADMINTON
Gopichand leaps to 19th in world rankings

New Delhi, May 26: National champion Puellela Gopichand has jumped 16 places in the latest rankings released by the International Badminton Federation, to move to a career-best 19th. This is the highest an Indian men's player has been ranked ever since Prakash Padukone was No. 1 in the unofficial rankings after winning the All-England championships in 1980.

Gopi, who was ranked 35th when the rankings were last released by the IBF on May 18, gained substantially through his lone victory in the final round of the Thomas Cup tournament in Kuala Lumpur recently. His team ranking points went up from 378.00 to 667.20 and his overall ranking points rose from 134.82 to 160.44. The four-time national champion's best ranking so far had been 26th in the world which he had achieved in December last year. He was 28th on March 30 before slipping further in the rankings due to his non-participation in international competitions due to a bout of typhoid prior to the Thomas Cup.

Siddharth Jain, who also scored a victory in the Thomas Cup and has been the most improved player on the circuit this year, has also jumped 63rd position last week to 54th now. Jain, who had beaten Malaysia's Roslin Hashim in Kuala Lumpur, is now just one rung below another Indian, Nikhil Kanetkar. Abhinn Shyam Gupta, who had to miss the Thomas cup due to injury is 86th in the latest rankings.

On the distaff side, Aparna Popat continues to suffer due to a three-month ban imposed on her by the IBF for inadvertently using a banned substance, contained in a medication for common cold. The national champion has slipped to 52nd in the world after making it into the top 30 before the ban was imposed. B.R. Meenakshi (72), Manjusha Kanwar (101) and Neelima Choudhary (120) are the other prominent Indian players on the list.

GOLF
Indians falter in Ericsson Open

Taipei, May 29: Indian professionals had a disappointing run at the Ericsson Classic at the Sunrise Golf and country club in Taipei last week. The best result for the Indian contingent came from Gaurav Ghei, who finished in 39th place with a tally of 290, two over par for the tournament. The Delhi based pro who shot a one under par 71 on the final day, had finished fifth in the Macau Open two weeks ago but has failed to make an impression on the Asian Professional Golf Tour since then.

Amandeep Johl made the next best finish among the Indian contingent in Taipei. He also carded a one under par 71 on the final day but had to settle for 48th spot with a tally of 292 for the tournament, four over par. Johl made a superb effort of four-under par 68 on the second day which put him in joint 13th spot for the tournament. However, his second round effort was negated in the third round when he shot a horrendous 79 to slip to join 52nd place, a huge fall of 39 places. His final round of one under par slightly retrieved the situation for him and he managed to improve his standing by four places to finish in 48th place.

Indian Open champion Jyoti Randhawa had a disastrous week after finishing second at the China open last week in Shanghai. Jyoti carded a final round of 75 to slip to 60th place in the overall standings with an aggregate score of 297, nine over par for the tournament. Randhawa began the tournament with a round of one-under par 71 and was placed in joint 28th spot at the end of the first round, leading the Indian challenge. However, he slipped to 40th place in the second round by shooting a three over par 74. His form deteriorated further on the third day where he carded a five over par 77 to slip even further down the leader board to 53rd place. The final day did not bring any joy to the lanky Meerut-based pro as produced another disappointing round which meant that he had shot a solitary under par round for the tournament.

The other Indian competitors were unable to make to cut at the end of two rounds which came at 147. Digvijay Singh with rounds of 73 and 76, former Indian Open champion Arjun Atwal, with rounds of 76 and 74, and Amritinder Singh, with rounds off 77 and 74, failed to progress any further in the tournament to complete an awful week for Indian golfers in Taipei. The tournament was won by South Africa's James Kingston who finished on an aggregate total of 272, 16 under par. He was followed by Andrew Pitts of the United States who finished five strokes off the pace.

CHESS
Youngest FIDE-rated player in 'fixing' scandal

Thiruvananthapuram, May 26: C M Gowri Shankar of Thiruvananthapuram, who became the youngest FIDE rated player at seven years, seven months and 20 days by collecting 6.5 points in the TAL Chess academy tournament, held from May 15 to 20, may not have secured the honour by fair means if his detractors are to be believed. The All Kerala Chess Association has been asked to conduct an inquiry into the allegation that his matches were fixed during the tourney to ensure that he made the grade. In the midst of the controversy, the budding chess prodigy is unlikely to get official backing as the federation authorities maintained that the meet was not FIDE-rated.

The allegation was first raised by V R Vinod who sent an email to the FIDE president alleging irregularities in the tournament. The FIDE director general sent it to the national federation which in turn referred it to the state body for an inquiry. It was alleged that the tournament was mainly held to award the youngest FIDE-rated status to Gowri Shankar whose father compensated players to get points.

"Out of the 6.5 points, 5.5 points were garnered through illegal means. Gowri lost to lowest ranked players like N Sugunraj and V T Thomas but at the later stages higher rated players bowed before Gowri," it was alleged. He had just 3.5 points after the 10th round of the 13 round tournament. Needing 5.5 points to get the status, Gowri upset three higher rated senior players in the last three rounds, raising suspicions that his matches had been fixed.

FOOTBALL
Sub-juniors ready for qualifiers

The Indian sub-junior (under-16) football team ended its final preparatory camp in Calcutta last week before the crucial Asian sub-junior qualifying tournament which begins in Jamshedpur on June 20.The qualifiers will feature five teams - Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka and hosts India, of which only one will make it to the main tournament which is scheduled to be played in Vietnam in September.

The team has been training under Islam Akhmedov, a coach from Uzbekistan who has expressed satisfaction at the progress of the boys at the camp which was held at the Easter Centre of the Sports Authority of India. The coach, who has been with the boys for the last two months, said his wards have developed appreciably in the period that he has been with them.

According to Akhmedov, the most important aspect has been the improvement in their physical shape. "One can utilise all his talents today only when he is physically sound. Indians have natural flair and skill and when it is matched with strength and stamina we can hope to reach a class," the Uzbek said before the camp ended.

After a short break, the team will assemble in Jamshedpur where the final work-outs, including the selection of the final team, will be done from the 25 probables.

The coach sounded a word of caution by identifying Bangladesh as a possibly tough opponent. He opined that the team needs to win all their matches. "A draw will land us in trouble and a loss would finish us," he cautioned. Appearing bitter about facilities at the venue, Akhmedov expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangements. "It has been a painful experience to train here," he signed off.